Please
note that these pages are far from finished and the information contained will
change several times a week as more is uncovered. Keep
the refresh on a constant and return often as it's not possible to give personal
notifications of changes. This also applies to the links listed
above.

During
the time period of early 1968 till fall of 1970 David Byron did a lot of session work at
City of
London Studios and PYE Studios for Avenue Records singing vocals to earn extra
money. In addition to singing lead vocals; he also recorded a lot of duets and
tracks with only backing vocals as well. These recordings are cover
versions of Top 20 hits and were released on numerous
EP's and LP's. Since no official CD has ever been released dedicated to David's
work, these songs became extremely rare. With no official credits listed
on the original recordings, information on them was only speculation and due to lack of verification it became
extremely difficult to put together an accurate track listing by artist without mistakes or
errors. Originally the thought was David couldn't have recorded more
than several dozen tracks but now itís been confirmed that the total would be
over one hundred forty or more. With the time concerns placed on him during
that period, this would have been a remarkable schedule to maintain.
A month or so before Uriah Heep went into the studio to record "Salisbury" in
October, 1970 that appears to mark the end of David's work with
Avenue. The combination of touring, rehearsing and recording
sessions planned; the pressure ultimately forced him stop participating.

These type albums were
referred to as "budget albums" because they supplied the same
songs as the original releases but at a fraction of the cost. Avenue
Records were small in comparison to the other labels doing cover
recordings such as PYE, Flair, MarbleArch, Deacon,
Fontana, MFP, Reddifusion or Hallmark.
In the US these type albums were done as well by labels such as K-tel.
With a much smaller distribution system and a limited market Avenue recordings
are rare in normal outlets. As time has pressed on the Avenue label is considered the "gold standard" for
this segment of the music industry. The vocal tracks were so
well regarded that some were leased out to other labels and used on other budget
album releases with different music by other musicians. David's voice is
known to be on other releases but it's just not possible for this site to give
you that information at this time.

Due to the quality of the recordings and the
talent pool possessed these tracks keep surfacing in many forms with many false
claims attached. One major example are the tracks shared by David
Bowie fans claiming his voice is found on these releases, that isn't
true. The voice mistaken by those fans would belong to Tony
Steven, who was used only in short term according the official sources. So if you happen across any of
these recordings be forewarned that just because it's an Avenue Records
production, that doesn't mean every track or any track for that matter is David
Byron's voice. With several different versions of songs released
even knowing the name of a track to look for can be difficult since there is no
list of what release it may have appeared on. Multiple tracks by Peter Lee Stirling and Danny
Street can sound like him in places so this makes it difficult to trace down
every single song, even for the most avid of fans.

Since it's still
not known the final total of material David did, this page and all the
information that will follow soon are for the soul purpose to document the truth
of this chapter in David Byron's life and career. It
appears to have played a major role in that period as well. The main goal
here is to end the long list of mistakes posted on
the Internet and correct the false information that has circulated for
years. Eventually a link will be added
to a list of over 140 songs David did sing on but it would still be a difficult task to find
every particular track. If you purchased an EP, a Chartbusters album or a
12 Top Hits LP containing the same title from a used record store, at a record
show or off of eBay; any place these used records are sold, the
chances are you may end up with a different version with a different
vocalist. This is one
of the major reasons these recordings are so hard to trace down all the
information on; to gather all that
is available and why it isn't possible to list the vocalist by track in the
listings for
the records released and documented in the links above.

Multiple versions were recorded
of many of the Avenue tracks
and sometimes included as many as five different lead vocalists. These tracks
were released on various vinyl records under titles such as Top Six, Top Six
From England, 12 Top Hits, Englandís Top 12 Hits, Chartbusters, Studio 33; and
compilations such as Grooviní,
The Rock Star Parade, Super Soul Sounds and multiple other titles.
David participated on multiple releases under
these names but its apparent some of the releases listed false artist
names but not the actual participants. David sang under listings such as Daveís
Soul Group, The Beat Kings
and the rehashed name John Smith and The New Sound. Multiple
other names are known and they overlap by other artists as well but again this can't be listed with accurate results.

Other unknown singers and
musicians took part in these sessions that later found fame themselves. Reginald
Dwight [later known as Elton John] recorded dozens of tracks with Avenue as
well. Three tracks that were duets with David; "Itís All In The Game",
"Up Around The Bend" and "Come And Get It" were
included on a CD compilation titled "Reg Dwight's Piano Goes Pop"
featuring Elton tracks from these sessions. No mention of David
Byron's voice is ever noted even though these songs have been released
on at least three different titles to date. David did as many as five or
more duets with Elton during this period and different versions of several of
those songs were recorded. These tracks featured each backing the other in
chorus and these would have been recorded on the same date. Elton also
recorded many of the same songs David did as well and it's interesting to hear
both versions to compare the styles of each artist.

Peter
Lee Stirling [Born Peter Charles Green and recorded under the name of
Daniel
Boone throughout his career], Dana Gillespie [a popular award
winning blues diva with over 50 albums to her credit], Danny
Street [one of the most popular studio singers of any era who made a
lifelong living with the BBC], Tony
Steven [noted BBC session vocalist], Martin Jay,
Laura Lee and
Ken Barrie [musician and actor best known for narrating the BBC
television program Postman Pat] are a few other
vocalist to take part. Further information on vocalist will be
added as we find the truth and quotes from those we contact over time.

Avenue Records were founded in the mid 1960s by Gordon Melville who
was listed for Production Credits under the name Mel Gordon.
The first Avenue
Records six track EP cover version record was released on May 1, 1967 and
Avenues last LP was AVE 0141. It was released in early 1974 and
there were no more beyond that date in the U.K.
Avenue's office and warehouse in Harlow Essex was taken over by The
Fifth Avenue Recording Company Ltd. and Artistry Recordings in 1976-1979.
The name was changed to CRC Recording Company in 1980 and then to RST Ltd.
Colin Richardson became head of A & R for Fifth Avenue in
1978; he has moved with the recordings
throughout changes from Fifth Avenue, Artistry and Phoenix. At present he has all legal rights to exploit the defunct Avenue
catalog.

Most of the music was under the
direction of a brilliant musical talent named Alan Caddy[pictured left], former guitarist with instrumentalist group The
Tornadoes. Most album and EP listings included the music as The Clive Allan Orchestra and Singers or
TheAlan Caddy Orchestra and Singers [both of these
names were Alan Caddy]. With
multiple top 40 hits in the UK and several in the US in the early 60s he forged
his way into respect of the industry. After leaving Avenue in 1974
he ended up relocating to Canada. He worked as music director and
arranger for Polydor Records before moving on to the Fontana Record
label. Sadly he died in August of 2000 so his story ends there.

The
main bass player was John Fiddy [pictured right]; best know for
his arrangements over the years with band and orchestra settings. He
wrote and arranged the orchestration for Uriah Heep's
"Salisbury" in 1970. Tony Stevens
sat in doing bass work on certain sessions[he
preferred to be called Tone those days and was the bass
player for Savoy Brown plus a founding member of Foghat]. We are trying to
find out other musicians who took part in these sessions at this time to add to
the story.

Other members of Uriah Heep also took part for a brief
period of time with the backing music. Mick Box played guitar on some tracks and bassist
Paul Newton
also participated briefly. It had been rumored that when starting
out in 1968 and still known as Spice the entire band went into the
studio together to record for Avenue when the sessions were confined to City
Of London studios. This is now confirmed as Nigel
Pegrum made note of this in comments during interviews.
Official comments and statements will be added in time to reference all this
information.

These
recordings can't be dismissed for the historical content
contained. The biggest example would be the thought that David
Byron's first charting album would have been with Uriah Heep;
this is far from the truth. The April 1969 Marble Arch
release "Spring Chartbusters" would be the first.
While featuring Avenue recordings it contained at least two tracks from David
and charted for one week on May 3, 1969 where it stood at the # 15 position on
the British Charts. One other Marble Arch release of Avenue
material topped that mark in 1970 when the release "Chartbusters '70" entered
the charts on January 31, 1970. It remained on the charts for five
weeks and reached a peek of # 7. This LP featured as many as eight
songs with David singing lead vocals.

One thing David offered to Avenue
Records was a unique multi-talented voice that offered extended range and verity.
His covers included most of the standard popular acts of the time such as The
Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Hollies, Marmalade, Hermanís
Hermits, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Monkees, The Doors and many others.
David's verity in taste ventured into many other styles and genres such as
covers of work by Mo-town artists as well.

In all the research one thing is
relevant; during the first few EP releases David was on, maybe one song would be
featured with his voice. As time progressed he ended up dominating
some of the recordings with his tracks. But the process also had the same
effect on his ending work with the label as he was only on one song in the
end. I never wished it to end, even now........... The search for the truth has taken a major swing in
the right direction however. We only share what information we are comfortable with and
if anyone has further input to consider; please contact me here.

Artistry Records
has confirmed to own the master tapes of all the Avenue sessions.
Most importantly they also possess the information required and maybe, just
maybe the mystery will finally have a final closing with the results the fans
want; to know beyond doubt that the track is actually David singing and hear
this in crystal clear re-mastered format. At present one 20 song CD
has been mixed and the glass master is ready to be pressed of re-mastered
tracks. A second disc is planned after that one and if those are
successful more will follow. This is a virtual goldmine for the fans
of one of the greatest voices in rock music history; the voice of our past, the
voice that stalks the soundtrack of our life. The voice we
want to hear one last time do something different we have not heard before.

So
this page is dedicated to the hope that everyone will get to hear it soon or
maybe this will not be the end of the story, but only the beginning of another
chapter. Let's hope that is the case and please if this
happens give it your full support to the one voice who can no longer give us a
smile except from the past. It's our past too.

Please click
the page linked below and like this page on Facebook.

"Get
David Byron's Avenue Records Recordings Released".

Special
thanks goes out to Ralf SchŁnemann, Masanobu Waki,
Kevin Julie, Glen Doucet
Tapio Minkkinen
and especially to Colin Richardson for being the one to make this happen.

Any reproduction or duplication without written permission from Travellers
In Time is prohibited. This page is for
information purposes only and without any intent to sale or profit
from the copyrighted material listed.